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TOTW: Anarchist Projects

Posted on:11 March 2019

By:notnull

Let's get specific and concrete about anarchist projects--What interesting projects could anarchists be working on today? How would these projects get off the ground? And are they viable in the world we live in, or only in some imagined post-capitalist future?

The main questions are:

1. What are some of your favorite existing (or past) anarchist projects? And what, in your mind, makes them anarchist (instead of leftist or activist, for example)?
2. What are some interesting projects that anarchists could be taking on right now (or in the future) that you don't currently see?
3. Are there ways that anarchists approached projects in the past that could be left behind, and are there new approaches that we could be trying? Or should we focus on preserving the way anarchists have traditionally approached projects?

While thinking about this question, I noticed a comment on another thread: "Community gardens, free mass transit and even production of goods only for need are all band aids at this point. Horizontal networks of autonomous people and groups who refuse to be coerced by outside political or economic forces is what will get us to wherever we need to be."

Can we talk concretely about what it would look like for 'horizontal networks of autonomous people and groups to get us where we need to be'? What does that look like when it doesn't look like syndicalism or other mass-organizing tactics? Can anarchists *actually* build successful projects without resorting to those tactics?

Comments

"1. What are some of your favorite existing (or past) anarchist projects? And what, in your mind, makes them anarchist (instead of leftist or activist, for example)?"

Is the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire a project and is it mainly about branding (unifying separate acts under a name/slogan/idea)? I kinda like their kind of stuff, and other sorts of prole strolls. The branding, communiqué, writing interviews from jail doesn't seem as fun though.

"2. What are some interesting projects that anarchists could be taking on right now (or in the future) that you don't currently see?"

A long dérive of destruction in which nobody gets caught, or a big time heist like in the movies, except ideally it doesn't even make the local news. My head's in the clouds, i know,

"3. Are there ways that anarchists approached projects in the past that could be left behind, and are there new approaches that we could be trying? Or should we focus on preserving the way anarchists have traditionally approached projects?"

Yeah, trying to come up with a name first, and a manifesto, and the contemporary equivalent of a twitter account, with a logo and nice graphic design, and hashtags etc. I mean that that approach can be abandoned in favor of doing something else, not that all of these types of projects should be discarded. Favoring trying out things and seeing if they're eventually written about by someone, instead of writing about things and seeing if they're eventually tried by someone.

I'll think about it some more and maybe answer a bit more "seriously" or "realistically". No, forrealtho.

"Is the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire a project and is it mainly about branding (unifying separate acts under a name/slogan/idea)?"

fuck yes! All the more that it creates a sense of a cohesive idea, especially promoting the idea that this kind of destruction is widespread and unifying and effective--that might even have better effects sometimes, when the benefit of spreading the idea outweighs the cost of getting caught (and jailed), until the idea grows to the point where there really are the numbers to back it up. not to mention their logo and other imagery are just badass. love it!

"...trying to come up with a name first, and a manifesto, and the contemporary equivalent of a twitter account, with a logo and nice graphic design, and hashtags etc...

I agree with this too! I think it's a mistake to name a project before it really gets off the ground. A project is nothing until it's something, you know? I also think it's a mistake to plan too much in the beginning without testing any of your ideas out first. a! described this very well during last Sunday's anarchy bang show during my call when he talked about the way leftist groups would spent a lot of time at the beginning of a project defining terms, establishing norms, all of that 'legwork' before even starting, only to get burned out on it (he put it way more articulately than I am but @shrug). I basically think this is always a mistake and am currently at the point where I refuse to put work into architecting large, long-term collaborations without building some smaller prototype first that doesn't involve any planning or agreements, because if we can't build something tiny together we sure as hell can't build something large. Maybe I'll soften on this as I crash and burn a few more times but I have to say that I enjoy the results so far.

in regards to projects and naming or not naming them: I have a project with no name that is carried on within myself, at the individual level. I often feel compelled by people driven to do something exploratory or challenging insofar as that challenge or exploration relates to their self directly.

You could call this an aspect of individualism- but what do individualists call a project they want to share between each other?

Once you go to the other side, of joining organizations, falling in line with doctrines, parroting the talking points of others, I think the individuality starts to effectively seep away from that person's views and desires.

What kind of projects do humanist or socialists value over individualists? This thread now has some interesting examples of what individualist projects are, but are we leaving some projects out accidentally?
What about artists? etc. Inb4 armchair diss by _Flame_thrower_Anon. k thxbye

gives me an idea that would probably go nowhere/not work but might be worth trying since its would take no organizing. It could be fun to do an entirely fake project, like 100 percent fabricated, just claiming to do stuff that either doesn't happen or isn't done by the people claiming it.
Some ways to do this might be:
1. Claiming responsibilities for crimes that you know happened but didn't have anything to do with: break-ins, robberies/muggings, random acts of violence if that's your bag, even sillier things like bikes being stolen. Obviously this is the type of thing that could go on longer the less likely it is that the crimes can be solved.
2. Fake report-backs/communiques from events that never happened, as big or small as you like: marches, protests, book-fairs, conferences, letter writing nights, skill shares, potlucks, mutual aid events, etc.
3: Announcing events that will never happen and then reporting back afterwards as if they did. This is the same as example 2 basically, with one extra step. Maybe something fun that could fall under this category would be the announcement of the opening of a new infoshop or social center at some hard to find address.
If the type of thing you're not doing is more activist-y and less criminal-y (more like 2/3 than 1) you could just make an entire fake newsletter to compile your fake events and distribute it regularly. This strikes me as probably the most viable and sustainable option out of all of these for getting your anarcho-fakenews out there.
Whatever it is I think the important thing would be to keep it going long after the jig is up and everybody knows its fake, but I'd say at least try to keep your identity as the faker a secret.

By going the way of this approach, you could end up doing "all of the time", for "none of the crime".

But to a less severe intensity of the intended effects and implications, as you alluded to, fake news and trolls create all types of hoaxes daily, for money, likes, views, and lulz. Even elaborate prankz and "social experiments", and alternative reality games. Almost everyone has made a fake account or profile, catfish, etc. These things create all kinds of noise and unintended consequences, but a lot of that is just noise falls on deaf ears, and there is a segment of the public that becomes increasingly discerning ofthese things, though there will never be a short supply of dupes.

With all the talk of "Russian meddling" and "Russian hackers", everyone is well aware, especially gov and army, of it, and the cyber domain takes more deliberate attention and integration within the concept of multi-domain operations that will gradually become doctrine.

The thing with stratagems is that they're not necessarily more effective. as a strategy to gain an advantage, the more complex it is, or the more false options you present your opponent. In battle, misdirection is not an end in itself, but a "force multiplier" for your maneuvers (in which ever domain, or multi-domain). You could masterly construct an Inception-like dream within a dream for someone, but what if you're still trapped in someone else's head? "The spectacle is the guardian of that sleep." (lol). Though "the spectacle" could be conceived as, among many other things for such an all-encompassing-to-the-point-of-being-annoying term, a (mis)direction that is an end in itself. This just a loose thought to bring some other things in to think about, not anything profound in itself.

In short, yeah this is something you could do, but how do you do it in a way that you get something out of it, be it thrills or something else, while not getting caught. There's the older precedent of signal jamming/hacking, culture jamming. In a way those projects were more ambitious and difficult to realize, and at the same time had less impact/"views". A viral video can be made and shared with less effort and potentially get many more views. But so what?

I'm rambling a bit, but it's because you pose an interesting thing to consider. Debord was already deep into this when he wrote "Comments on the Society of the Spectacle". But do we want to double down on things that require people glued to screens? Is it really a diversion or a distraction to the viewers, or is it just as a decoy for the content creators in this example?

What about the alternative; actions that have no witnesses or accounts of it, no media presence?

Believe me, i've considered your proposal, and even dabbled in it, but in more "harmless" attempts. What did get out of it? Beyond the learning experience, maybe not more than a few confused and disappointed dupes, who will be more wary next time.
Sometimes this puppet shadow theater approach, makes you think you're somehow in control of all these little pawns and that your tendrils have influences far and wide, like Debord deluded himself. A conscious projection of strength to deceive others can become a self delusion of grandeur. Fooling others for fun can be a power trip, and ultimately it's coercion, for those who have such scruples or ethics.

Still more to think about, interesting proposal. Would like to hear more of what you think.

"By going the way of this approach, you could end up doing "all of the time", for "none of the crime"."
Definitely a possibility, which is why I ended up saying something more like tamer activist newsletter might be more viable. I'm not sure what are the legal ramifications of doing entirely fabricated--i.e. not taking credit for things that actually happened but just making things up--crimes is but I certainly wouldn't recommend doing it without finding out first!.

As far as the rest of your response goes, I was thinking of this as more along the lines of a prank with no real strategic advantage. I'm really firing from the seat of my pants but the basic thoughts behind it are a) actually doing things doesn't seem to be doing anything and b) I happen to be young enough that I really only know of anarchist pranks (or, frankly, even an anarchistic sense of humor) as a thing that used to happen "before my time" and its not really a thing I ever see, so really I'm just trying to come up with something that keeps points a and b in mind. It might be, especially in newsletter form, an interesting, "grass roots" way of adapting to fake news. Or it might just be a way to carry out the most ineffective attempt of signal jamming ever tried; your point that "a lot of that is just noise falls on deaf ears, and there is a segment of the public that becomes increasingly discerning of these things, though there will never be a short supply of dupes" certainly rings true. But really I'm thinking the goal is to be kind of amusing to whoever is producing it and whoever knows better (and there's no guarantee that would happen, either!).

Yeah, the first idea you propose sounds like making an anarchist "Weekly World News", "The Onion" or "ClickHole". It gives you the freedom of being as silly, absurd and outlandish as you want with the premises. If the sense of humor and images are well done, many people would enjoy it. Maybe it could even inspire some real events.

The idea of a big-ish well-orchestrated one-time prank is also appealing to me. Like embarrassing some authority figure in front of a crowd of teens. Some people, like politicians, spend millions and years to build an image, and it can crumble in seconds. Encouraging mischief and trickery, specially in the younger formative years, is always welcome.

With respect to internet originated hoaxes, which there's an endless amount of unaffiliated trolls online, increasingly there will be hobbyist trolls which will get incentives of funding by state and non-state agents, in covert and overt manners. The boring job of "fact-checking" and knocking down false stories, spins or false flags before the begin, or quick response damage control, also has its place and value. But spending too much effort into these endeavors, is a huge time-suck. Ideally by keeping international, regional, and local networks of trusted online friends where you can quickly verify things, helps, and means you don't have to do it yourself, depend on any one outlet, or be everywhere at once.

Local knowledge is key to make hoaxes believable (or to debunk them). A hoax maker with local knowledge of the target site, operating from far away, has an advantage á la the so called "silo of russian trolls". This is an image that's made a bogeyman and attributed too much, but this type of activity by many different actors Russian. Chinese etc is one US Army is very concerned with and wishes to compete in and dominate as explicitly stated in recent unclassified documents. Their capacity in this area is not yet up to par (and same goes for other govs, which sometimes try to project a greater capacity than what they actually have), but they will soon make up for it and double down. Are @ prepared? Of course not, though some have had a head start.

or heard of...
a. a team of people keeping company with an abuser, so that they weren't alone/given an opportunity to fuck up again
b. reading/study groups of anarchist material
c. community gardens (obviously this can be leftist in intention, but subsistence gardening is direct action, so fuggit)
d. gatherings of anarchists to chat, think, get to know each other: RAT, bastard conference were two...
e. helping people start squats
f. friends getting together to take care of someone they know who needs help, so that the state doesn't get involved

i'm one of those losers who thinks that having a strong anarchist subculture is a good thing, so stuff that strengthens that counts as good projects for me.

Even though projects like this aren't my priority, I do appreciate them and I'm glad people like you are doing them! (Even though I typically am not really enmeshed in f2f anarchist subculture as I don't stay in one place long enough...)

So then when large numbers of anarchists inevitably go to jail because destruction is the only project, what of prisoner support? Is it a project aiding said destruction? Or should it be done away with, too cowardly?

I guess if you are speaking of some kind of recursive destruction as panacea then the answer is: destroying the prisons is the only prisoner support. Or is the goal _destruction only_, because it is the best form of propaganda?

Of course the state has way more capacity for destruction right now than anarchists could ever dream of..

Is destruction only material? So here we are standing among ruins from all the anarchist destruction, now what?

Two anarchists hide behind a metal dumpster in the midst of a riot. One grabs a rock and asks the other "Where should I throw it?". The other one replies "What are you? Some kind of intellectual?"

. ... . ..

i will take the comment you are replying to as a jarring provocation, even though some are that deluded to mean it literally. i will take your reply as rhetorical questions, even though you might really want answers to them.

there is no big afterwards or overarching "shoulds", so you're both free to do as you wish.

you can aim before you throw the rock, or not. or even not throw it. you can ask before throwing, or never ask.

what do you want to do? what do you feel like doing?

i'd like to throw rocks, i bet it feels good. i don't want to go to jail, i'm certain i'd hate it. if a loved one went to jail, i'd try to care for them as best as i could, same if they got sick. but i'm no saint. life goes on outside, and it still sucks to be locked up.
would i want to be charitable to a stranger who is locked up? so far the answer has been no, maybe i would want to, it sounds good, but not something that compels me to put the effort and go through the motions. some charity is easier to do than others.

Hey, you just hit a little baby in a pram with that rock you threw. That is soooooo prison worthy dude, and really bad PR for whatever it is you represent. Stirnerians would never do such a stupid thing!

sounds real enough. reminds me once in middle school i thew a pencil up in the air at recess, and it fell down and hurt a girl in the face. it didn't drew blood or anything, she did cry. no one found out who threw it. there was this other kid who deliberately launched a metal mechanical pencil at another girl's face, using rubber bands as a slingshot! luckily, she wasn't badly hurt either, but he got caught and got in trouble.

Can't help but be reminded of the anti-intellectualism that seems so common, but I like to imagine the two anarchists behind the dumpster also having brains as well as their good sense of humor. And yes I suppose I took the bait on the reductive "destroy everything" grandparent post. But it seems to be a common dumbed down mantra. What anarchist doesn't want to destroy so many things, even everything (not just physical manifestations as i was poking at)? I just think we can also have projects that don't look like riots or clandestine activity too and maybe those things thrive better with material support that isn't as sexy, with thought and conversation that looks like cowardly do nothing-ism to the hotheads slinging innuendo on the internet of all places.

I don't really see prisoner support as charity as much as solidarity, but I see and have wrestled with the point you are making. Perhaps the distinction between charity and solidarity is that anarchist prisoners may have some objectives and interests you find affinity with? Whereas charity i would put more in the column of things like: let's clothe the homeless because it is the humane thing to do...

I think you're right that, from a pragmatic point of view, destruction is maybe not an ideal anarchist project.

Most of the talk about destruction I read above seemed a bit tongue-in-cheek to me, but that aside, I also find that when I talk to people who favor these kind of tactics, asking the 'now what?' question doesn't matter to them that much because their goal isn't to be effective or to accomplish any particular goal, really. And although those aren't my goals, I find that really difficult to argue with, if that makes sense.

i like when "building capacity" also means re-skilling, and learning to be bold in the face of your fears, thriving in chaos and ambiguity, and seizing opportunities. not so much when the emphasis is on "critical mass". opportunity cost...you can't do and not do something at the same time. it was not worth it for all, i bet some got their worth and more. sometimes the cost of not doing something is greater, hard to tell, in hindsight it's easier, also yolo

I'm on board with this, and I think land is inevitably a very large part of that. It's the sort of project that's deeply meaningful to everyday life, something that's worth defending. The importance of that can't be overstated.

Leftism/activism is a sea of humourless, obedient berets and self-important leaders, so that’s out.

Idpol is mostly self righteous finger pointing at individual behaviour rather than a practice based in attacking that which causes the behaviour, so that’s out.

Egoism and nihilism, as I understand them at least, could be powerful tactics, but both seem afraid or unaware of the necessary intimacy we need with nature in order to be as healthy, free and immense as we can be.

The direction I want to take isn’t toward a bunch of drunken Oscar Wildes walking around in cities wearing flamboyant hats, although that does sound awfully fun. And Oscar is one of those people that I would most definitely invite to my ideal dinner party, but my point is that I want to see massified civilization in ruins. Cities and city culture- art galleries, museums, cafes, theatres, universities, bars, clubs, sub-cultures... that’s all superficial shit to me. I want to be embedded in a habitat. To have the sense that everything in it is my kin. To feel part of something much deeper and wider than human, urban existence.

Make our lives causes sufficient unto themselves. Organically link with others in order to achieve greater and bigger-picture goals.

I agree with you but I also think that using the abstraction of "project" is useful, since it's difficult/impossible to un-velcro from society all at once and thereby talk about living anarchy completely.

Depends on what you mean by 'projects' and 'life', I suppose! When you say, for example, that "Egoism and nihilism... could be powerful tactics, but--" it implies to me that you have some goals in mind (powerful tactics for what?) and when you talk about the "necessary intimacy we need with nature in order to be as healthy, free and immense as we can be" it implies to me that you have some criteria in mind for success. I personally am happy calling 'tactics applied with the purpose or accomplishing goals' "projects" -- not that you have to! -- whereas when I think about 'just living life' I imagine something more laissez faire. So I guess what it's 'about' depends on what you mean. :)

When you said " I want to see massified civilization in ruins. Cities and city culture- art galleries, museums, cafes, theatres, universities, bars, clubs, sub-cultures... " at first I thought you meant you wanted to see *these things* in the ruins, and that was exciting to me! It's ok that you didn't, but I think that would be so cool. I actually enjoy those things quite a bit (the parts of them that aren't totally ruined by capitalism, of course) and could imagine some very cool museums in ruins.

"Make our lives causes sufficient unto themselves. Organically link with others in order to achieve greater and bigger-picture goals. " Yeah. So on board with this!

"This is not an anarchist project because... " Explain how I would know the difference; let's say I have no experience of anarchy/anarchism of anarchists? If a project is part-anarchist and part-not, is this still an anarchist project? What is the anarchist part and what isn't?

In my opinion, a good anarchist project is one that is materialized daily with the life experience of breaking the law and having fun while doing so. Nothing is more satisfying and liberating than learning new ways to fuck the system. As a nihilist, I wonder what anarchy would look like if more people gave up trying to organize "the mass" and instead attacked on an individual level.

i agree precautions should be taken, to try to go farther. but i still admire those who dare to try to commit to climb a tall mountain. the mountain is not defeated after the feat, and you’ll rarely be the first or the only one. it’s about the journey and the experience. jail is not something anyone wants to experience. but neither is a fatal injury on a hiking trail, etc.

“Isn't life about the journey, not really the destination? And here we've been on this journey, and the truth is, it's been thrilling. We haven't reached that other shore, and still, our sense of pride and commitment, unwavering commitment. When I turned 60, the dream was still alive from having tried this in my 20s -- dreamed it and imagined it. The most famous body of water on the Earth today, I imagine, Cuba to Florida. And it was deep. It was deep in my soul.

03:15
When I turned 60, it wasn't so much about the athletic accomplishment, it wasn't the ego of "I want to be the first." That's always there and it's undeniable. But it was deeper. It was "how much life is there left?" Let's face it -- we're all on a one-way street, aren't we? And what are we going to do? What are we going to do as we go forward, to have no regrets looking back? And all this past year in training, I had that Teddy Roosevelt quote to paraphrase it, floating around in my brain. It says, "You go ahead. You go ahead and sit back in your comfortable chair and you be the critic, you be the observer, while the brave one gets in the ring and engages and gets bloody and gets dirty and fails over and over and over again, but yet isn't afraid and isn't timid and lives life in a bold way.”

end quote (there’s more cool bits in the transcript)

A lot of people get caught in petty acts, but a lot don’t and those don’t necessarily make the news or get written about, cuz that’s the nature of the thing. I’m sure it must have been very challenging for them to succed where many others had failed. I can come up with many different ideas that sound just as exciting to me, but are less harder than climbing the Everest. Too bad I don’t have the guts to try.

Ultimately, maybe only a really small amount of people do have that overlap of desire, daring and perseverance. Maybe that can be fostered somehow.

I'm not sure if #YOLO is much of a foundation for this sort of thing? Plus! In the anti-globalization era, they were usually using forms of mass resistance at times and still got fuckin WRECKED for the most part.

Children in to the meat grinder and now, apparently we're going to shit-talk any kind of collectivism while prescribing moreorless the same reckless martyrdom?! Hmm ...

if you’re gonna be grumpy and sad unless you “big win”, prepare to be grumpy and sad for the rest of your life.

who are you “militantly opposing very powerful institutions” for? what will be the legacy of your “militant opposition”?

this story is not one of martyrdom. isn’t being a prudent worker and citizen your whole life also a form of martyrdom? isn’t sacrificing your imagination to the conscripts duty a form of self-mutilation?

i never once metioned anything against collective anything, much less any type of martyrdom. don’t foist me your belated trite false dichotomies. i shouldn’t expect much less from someone who hasn’t yet learned to properly live, and yet is so close to the other side.
a brave and fresh attempt full of impetus will do you more good than stale justifications for your time lost.

i think water projects that work to secede from city/municipal water systems aren't as difficult as they sound, at least in part. the situation in flint would have been much less devastating with some autonomous storage and rainwater collection. instead the city made an authoritarian decision, and people had to drink/bathe with bottled water and suffer health consequences for years. water systems are paternalistic like that. it doesn't have to be an all/nothing deal... even acquiring enough independently to wash a few dishes would get us there in steps.

when the boat of civilization springs leaks, is it the role of anarchists to fill them? your repairing something that ultimately not only keeps proles healthy and alive, but steadily exploited. There's water everywhere, an individual with a sawyer filter wouldn't ever have to worry about that. Neither would 10 individuals with 10 filters.

Just as the metaphorical analogy with water distribution is commonly used in electricity and electronics, it also goes the other war around when it comes to monopolized mass management of water systems, i.e. the monopolistic ways in which water is distributed at a mass level is analog to electric power distribution, and there is the same problem that people have been lacking autonomous, more grassroots-level forms of distribution of these.

That's why mesh internet feels to me like a rather mundane, secondary issue to me, compared to way more urgent needs for local water and energy networks. What's the use of the fucking internet if you got toxic water from the tap, or keep paying astronomical costs for electricity that fails often?

BY THE WAY... you'll find that unlike different control-freak countries like France, you may be legally-allowed to run local power grids or water systems that are independent from the government and corporations. Realize your opportunity for it, as elsewhere you could have these projects rammed and destroyed overnight by State forces.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sArXw6ajNg This is an interesting documentary and is it something anarchists may find of use, particularly if a project developed which did a deep dive to provide an accessible understanding in theory and praxis? Has anybody looked into the 'strawman' as an avenue of potential for greater freedom/autonomy?

american anarchists project are just doing the states and police work for them, being security for the Democrats and Liberals, and writing their new rules and creating their own social-police force for after the blessed ReVoLuTiOn™

That's a very unhealthy environment for a nihilist, who will be the major target of the anarchist police, who will most likely be re-educated capitalist cops anyway.
These anarchist cops will have their hands full going up against the East LA Stirnerian Nihilist Association.
-ELASNA spokesperson-

uhm … how do you even take a position this stupid and keep a straight face? Do you just never attempt to apply anything you say or think to real life in any meaningful way? Rulers and rules are really fucking different and no social group has ever existed on earth without at least a few guidelines of behaviour that would have to be aggressively enforced.

The punchline to the cosmic joke is: if you DID have a decent sized social group that somehow managed to exist for a time without ANY rules whatsoever (which would never happen because that's fukin stupid), along comes the asshole who is willing to transgress against the rest and BAM, you've got a ruler.

I would consider anyone who attempts to rule over me an enemy, I would also anyone who seeks to create social rules an enemy

I am also not a utopian future thinker, I can fully understand that is just a thought, not an attainable future, so I can either coward and be ruled, or attack where and how I want and create as much chaos as possible

into the world would include both creative and destructive acts starting with a makeover and redecoration and extending outwards into your environment. I think creative projects have a higher risk to reward ratio at this point as I've never heard of anyone completely destroying even one whole prison even though its a large static target. Connecting to other projects would be key to growth and expansion of a personal network and realizing more of the beautiful idea. Making the world the way you want it would include many different creative/destructive projects but also include a lot of workarounds and avoidance of undesirable attributes until you have the resources to change them.

Anarchists already spend too much time policing each other and now some want to extend it to the whole fucking world. Next they will be adding torture cells like they did in the Spanish Civil War. If your group needs it's own NKVD then it's time to join the Stalinists.Anarchists and the fine art of torture.

The trouble with the whole project concept is that it monopolizes time, by doing so it commodifies time and therefore space, ultimately the continuum!
This is soooo damn Euclidian I am appalled and have no respect or energy to invest in any "project"

As mentioned before, a project has a start and and end. It is not ongoing.
That being said, successful projects are
- filling in potholes
-Putting up alternative street signs
- Free stores
- Have a bookstore/collective space for discussions, films, performances
- squats of artists that have an area displaying their work instead of cities setting aside a stale art area

I'd really only like to get into the specifics, as the old "just do dual power" is pretty stale.

[ Food Production ]
I know little to nothing on how to grow food but theres a few things I can think of
- Centralizing and clarifying information on how to grow certain foods in small spaces
- Do the same but for small scale farming techniques
- For our suburban Komrades(c) buying small plots of land as the price is cheaper on wagie salaries and growing food there
- Dumpster diving of course
[ Weapons ]
- not being scared of firearms and learning how to properly discharge and maintain a weapon
- Stockpiling, not for some imaginary revolution, but for practical purposes like hunting
- Taking advantage of your local laws, such as Kentucky's permitless carrry
[ Technology ]
This is by far the easiest to achieve
- Familiarize with free and open source software
- Dont centralize on proprietary social networks like facebook and twitter
- Use the dozens of online resources or classes at your local community college to learn computer skills
- ENCRYPT EVERYTHING
- Using the internet as a springboard for IRL interactions with your fellow radicals(tm)

The main problem is the lack of unspecialized anarchists. When you have the skills to do something you dont really have to ask "what to do". I'd say take advantage of every possible resource and learn as much as you can as well as helping others do the same.

my suffering through the meaningless of life and navigating my way through the relationships, interactions, and experiences contained therein—without deluding myself by attaching (anchoring) to ideas that winning or changing the world or finding greater purpose is anything more than it is—and perhaps advancing this idea in others. all while actively pursuing the destruction and complete negation of the existent.

i mean at the end of the day you gotta ask yourself if are you an anarcan or an anarcan't. amirite???

are you hiding your first unfounded assertion behind a question mark because i have previously hurt your feelings by illustrating the meaninglessness of things you deem important? my nihilist posture is such simply because i am honest enough with myself to not base my posture (to use your silly word) on imagininigs. i have no problem with criticism or sarcasm. i love both as i love plants and animals and poetry and thee! i can not speak for my "supporters," there is no church but i will accept your donations at $rfa-makes-people-sad.abyss.cash

So RFA... I was satirizing your apparent complaining or excuses that life is meaningless, for at the same time proning do-nothingism... your own personal way of negating the "existent". Not sure you ever understood Levinas' "existent" in the proper constructivist perspective, where it means something to assume we are producing or reproducing, and not this monstrous antagonism that must be fought agaisnt.

What differentiates the anarchist from the authoritarian sheep, IMO, lies where the first asserts that LIFE HAS THE MEANING WE MAKE IT TO BE and that the Existent being a construct, like technology or language can be rebuilt and re-used accordingly with our own needs, rules, principles, intents and goals. Because at the basis the reality is that we're the producers of these nice big concepts. So there's nothing wrong with defining a meaning to life and asserting it, like full force. Just don't assert them up against me...

What you seem to be promoting, instead. is the circular, self-defeating logic of answering to absence with... absence. So I'm wondering if you aren't chasing another ghost... that of the Existent, and seeking a pure life away from its perceived trappings.

But make no mistake, I'm totally fine with dadaism, which is lacking these days. It can be read as the positive, creative assertion of the meaningless. Yet that, too, can be seen as baaad, bad "doism"... So hey let's try nothing.

additionally, yes, i am familiar with levinas and his existent. you may have read an essay i wrote in the late 90s on levinas the there is and care (sorge)… but probably not. deep shit. real talk… and your (clearly) recent discovery of levinas's writing and interpretation/application of him/his though in this context is laughable at best. who will you read next that you force fit into conversations where there is no room for them? here… you are missing humor where there is humor and the beautiful sarcasm where it is there. throughout the entirely of this there is (es gibt) laughter but certainly not with you.

my posture is forever fucked up from multiple disc herniations in my cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine from a lifetime of ATTACK. me voice, and you?

has no apparent objective meaning doesn't mean you should live a meaningless subjectivity. Making a lifestyle out of nihilism seems like a sub optimal and entry level choice of how to fill the void. What to do now that I've negated the legitimacy of church, state and society? Hopefully something funner than talking endlessly about the meaningless of life. You're handing the Christians a win if all you can do is be miserable because the old meta narratives lack proofs.

GO3 You have hit the nail on the head sir! I have been imploring nihilists to ebrace my gleeful and positive creative, sensual and compassionate school of nihil-esque endevour so that they can boldly and hilariously go about their meaningless and insignificant empty lives by having fun-loving multiple relationships with people.
BUT NOOOOO, ALL THE EVIL INVERTED CHRISTIAN ABYSS DWELLING TROLL NIHILISTS CURSE MEEEEEE!!!

There's isn't any strong tension about nihilism here... but rather around this same old pissant, pricky trolling that's been rampant on this site for like centuries, without which any discussion on whatever topic could float to somewhere. Some pedant losers -who'll pretend being something else than losers- continuously spew shit and don't care being accountable for their bullshit because welcome to the internet.

There is a strong tension about nihilism here... not the same old pissant, pricky trolling that's been rampant on other sites for like centuries, without which any discussion on whatever topic couldn't float to somewhere. Some fairly brilliant commenters -who'll pretend being something else than brilliant- continuously elevate the discourse and clearly care being accountable for their contributions because welcome to the internet.

"But even though the sacred languages made such communities as Christendom imaginable, the actual scope and plausibility of these communities can not be explained by sacred script alone: their readers were, after all, tiny literate reefs on top of vast illiterate oceans. A fuller explanation requires a glance at the relationship between the literati and their societies."

As the binary of anarcans and anarcan'ts precludes. Specks of dust, brushed away from the heights my ivory tower where I bone myself with a dildo on which is engraved the sacred hermetic name... as I shout it "Daaaaseeeeeiiin"!!! A Foucault Pendulum in the room below proves only one thing... that "proof" was never a thing and the world only turns around my axis.

There are a bunch of people that are homeless. There’s a lot of vacant and abandoned houses and structures.

There are a lot of people living in their cars. I saw in an article is a parking lot in California that let’s them stay overnight. Some people in that situation make arrangements to park overnight in front of someone’s house with their permission.

Imagine a band of homeless people or an anarcho motorcade, that goes from car park to car park, staying in parkings lowkey or boisterously squatting them, providing mutual support in stuff they need in their common situation, and maybe even occasionally forming a tailgating festival.

Squatting an abandoned structure or house is harder than just using it for parking overnight, and using its (or as a) bathroom, etc. You try to keep it lowkey and try not stick around long enough to get “evicted” (you’re on wheels anyways). You rotate between various structures/houses in the area with other people, and let that network be known to the group, as well as specific info.

and my neighbor sublets to members of his extended family and let's people flop there so its basically a shelter or halfway house. I won't have much to do with it because it already costs me a lot and I'm busy with other things but it is a model for mutual aid and surviving capitalism.

It's true that the "privileged" homeless are increasingly preferring street-squatting in vans these days. The trend's been growing.

The practice was already widespread across Europe for decades (the "caravans", but they might just be a continuity of the centuries old Romani subculture) yet have only been burgeoning in NA since the '00s. Some ppl realize you're often just better off in an old minibus or van parked at the right spots, as long as you can afford the license and insurances. "Stealth-camping" is how they call it, I think. Then if you're lucky after a while you may find some vacant lot that cops don't care about, or the backyard of some friendly people in exchange of a little help for some daily needs. Schools with gyms provide with accessible showers outside of busy hours. Public in libraries with a quiet place where to breathe and read Time and Being (lol). The thing is that you can't really be evicted out of a moving "house", which is a plus over the actual squats, that in NA seem to me, overall, like some intense paranoia trip (I hope I'm wrong) or just aren't the good life you'll get in Euro or SA squats. As long as you stay away from the brutally-policed orwellian nightmare cities/areas, you might be fine, but I haven't tried it a lot personally for now, tho that's my plan for later this year. As you're saying it'd be potentially easier to develop intermediary infrastructure that supports autonomy and solidarity among people living in the same way, like over the public utilities that aren't made freely-available to randos.

Its soooooooo funny about reading Heidegger Time and Space in the public capitalist library if one is a homeless anarchist Lol, hahahaaa, hahahaaaaaaaaa hahahaha,,,,,haaahaha
*Shhhh no loud laughter in the library allowed*

[I'm the person who made the capacity building remark near the top of this thread]

Following the London Anarchist Bookfair organisers understandable decision to call it quits I encouraged my favourite radical bookshop to do something to replace it. The staff were very receptive, got Freedom Press on board and now it's having it's second, much larger iteration starting Friday 31st May.
I'm working on what will hopefully be an open-ended, nonsectarian, zero-budget anarchist talks programme in central London. What has been pleasantly surprising is the willingness of people to do agree to do talks, the support of my radical bookshop and other radical venues to let me use their space. My sincere hope is anarchist activists, writers and academics from abroad who are passing through London will consider do a talk while they're over here. I will post the details on here once a website is online. After searching around there are very few places where people can get a website built for free or low cost for outward facing project like this are on extremely tight/zero budgets. So if it ends up being on wordpress.com don't bust my chops because I have reached out to every anarchist group I know of to help on this.

Yeah I had considered them. Inventati/Autistici who are behind noblogs and the others are fantastic for straight text but iirc none of them permit -for entirely principled reasons I'm totally on side with- linking to google maps or the local goverment Transport for London website which are very useful for disabled people trying to travel across London. Getting across London is bad enough for able-bodied people. We simply can't make things harder for our disabled comrades.

it's like none of us can really do ANYTHING to improve our own autonomy in capitalism! Lol, ok, i look forward to starting my garden project again next month in my lawn, but my personal life is hazardous and confused enough that everything i do is some temporary defense against my "meaningless subjectivity". Cheers to you, my overseas friend in disembodied action.

The moving van idea is of course good, i know some people who've done this successfully, but ya know, there's always further complications with everything, each personal bubble life is another personal bubble life...

No personal bubble follows an ideal whatsoever; it's more than usual a response to conditions. Tho it may be preferable to directly living off the streets? I've also seen street people building up their own bubble to live into... in the winter especially it's a matter of survival in a context where the crooked, repressive public transit administrations are keeping the homeless at bay. "Underground City", my ass. It's got opening hours and a tight security making sure no one even has a nap for longer than 15 minutes. If there'd be a People's Park in or near all the nicest cities and smaller towns I'd be living there straight away, and no questions asked. Anon 13:31 was asking the worthy question of how can we manage to blur the frontiers of our personal bubbles without creating giant cop magnets at the same time, starting from a stealth camper's perspective... tho sure, just having a vehicle can be a drag in itself.The question is what do you do when your tent city gets evicted? Already having your mobile shelter thus allows for maximum mobility to regroup elsewhere.

Other than that... highway overpasses? ;-) A world of possibilities for Precarious Living TM!

I'm sorry but anarcho and privacy-focused web infrastructures obviously won't be intending to do the same things as Facebook. I don't see anything so hard to understand in there. But there are other ways to be suggesting an orwellian website of the UK government without linking directly to it, you know?

Sometimes semiosphere, an inner ableness compensates for the outer disability, and an equilibrium is acquired, which makes you equal in your personal power to outer-abled people. Do you understand what I mean, Yes?
Nooooow, you are not disabled and are now powerful you don't have to physically travel across London, because now you have inner strenth, and you can stay where you are and use technology to go, or you can use your newly enabled power of charm to get everyone to come to you now, or for things to be taken to you. Because YOU have the power now, YOU control and love your destiny, YOU are now psychologically empowered with a new confidence and autonomous consciousness.

Coping with being a sexually-inhibited person with occasionally devious attractions who can't find a way to talk straight to a young women he comes across.. always putting on this paper-thin "PR mask" that is as good a prison than walls of thick concrete (mainly due to being "outside" yet not able to get help). Dealing with this shit, on a regular basis, is tearing my soul apart. It's impossible to talk to others about it irl. People are just way too private, enclosed, insular and of course with all the loads of judge(-)mentality that comes along with that. Internet porn the solution? Just like using meth to alleviate heroin addiction.

That'd be too easy to throw the blame on the leftists for their shitty private libertinism, behind the political bs curtain, or even at the more mainstream normies foe having a happy, healthy, active sex life. I'm jsut at the receiving end of their fucking system of privilege, and all there is left for me is... go around telling rando females wanna fuck them? My libido's my worst enemy, ever!

Thanks for not clicking. But getting back to projects, one to set precedents would be the planning of a permanent absenteeism of children from school and State education. One day strikes wont work, it must be lengthened to children designing their own curriculums.
Is this tooo scary for anarchists, and it must be leftto the nihil-esque Stirnerian children to lead The Way?

this is genius, and difficult af. full force of state and media indignation will bear on them. unless it’s christian fundamentalist homeschooled anti-vaxxers....that’s it!! the perfect disguise!!! that way you won’t be made to drink poison like socrates!!!

The irony is Le Way gets it when it comes to kids and anarchy. The archetypal parent has done far more quantitative harm to children in leviathan and history then any pedo peter has done here and there. It's the custodial complex that needs to be dissolved along with all education for the realization of learning.

Fixing potholes was the funniest unintentional anarchist joke since the memorable "Save on Meats" placard abduction in Vancouver, like several years back. Tho I still can't decide if the latter was serious or just a prank. But quite feat, no matter what!

An. Early poster mentioned community gardens. Thats one way to gain power and independence from half of ones needs and currency. AND after finding free or squatting accommodation, one is free of the system AND that is a major yoke removed from around ones neck.

Ok don't wanna break your bubble but it's already full of community gardens staffed/co-owned by nefarious liberal yuppies in city areas. I dunno... maybe if you're like in East Europe or Middle-East, I dunno this would have a whole different meaning with the context. All what a community garden is gonna give you is a small surplus of veggies in the late summer/fall. As long as gardening in North America doesn't become an open, freely-accessible "public commodity", it's just more of the same old capitalism, and micro-level colonization of land. And oh yeah... let's not forget that there's such a thing as communal capitalism, and it got really big lately.

Capt, Like most humans in uniforms you have to display an honest and law abiding attitude in front of crewmembers, however, I am not talking about wasting energy growing vegetables but actually stealing them all at night when the human yuppies are asleep or at dinner parties.

communes bulwark with bunker mentality sludgingly trudging through reified trappings rigidly calcified with marxist precipitate ensure their deafeat by their agile opponents adept at quick maneuvers, only intesnsified at their opponent’s moments of vulnerabilities...we are the bunny rabbit hares that will steal their carrots!!!

...look at these empty, sharky, always-complacent eyes, GLOWING with unhinged hate in the night at the direction of your urban communes with feral, blood-thirsty glee, ready to take out all of the carrots and broccoli of OVERCIVILIZED HIPSTERS.

2. What are some interesting projects that anarchists could be taking on right now (or in the future) that you don't currently see?

Animal primal warfare, I want to release rabbits, school shooters, dogs and cats into the wild behind John Zerzan his house for them to regularly raid his property and seize the goods of his garden and trashcan. It's like ITS came to America but better.